Studies on the Enteropathogenic, Facultatively Halophilic Bacteria, Vibrio Parahaemolyticus

Abstract

SUMMARY : In recent years, it was demonstrated that cultures of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from human diarrheal stools were different from those from sea fish and sea water in a hemolytic activity on a special blood agar, which was named the Kanagawa phenomenon.In the present studies, the finding has been confirmed by using 3370 cultures of the vibrios. Ninety-six % of the vibrios isolated from human patients gave positive (hemolytic) reaction in the test of the phenomenon, while only one % of the vibrios from sea fish and sea water gave positive results in the test.No relationship was observed between the phenomenon and serological and biochemical characteristics.Enteropathogenicity of the cultures of the vibrios positive in the Kanagawa phenomenon was evident by the results of feeding tests according to Takikawa and Aiiso and Fujiwara and by a case of laboratory infection of the culture to a male who took gastroenteritis by administration of approximately 106 viable cells of the hemolytic vibrios in the test of the phenomenon.On the other hand, feeding tests were carried out with 15 human volunteers to clarify enteropathogenicity of the negative (non-hemolytic) vibrios. None of them took illness, although over 109 cells of the vibrios were administered.Thus, the authors considered, as a rule, that the vibrios giving negative Kanagawa phenomenon may be nonpathogenic to human beings.

The distribution ofVibrio parahaemolyticusin British coastal waters: report of a collaborative study 1975–6

“…By means of agglutination tests with specific 0 and K antisera, different serological types of V. parahaemolyticus may be recognized (Sakazaki, Iwanami & Tamura, 1968;Sakazaki, 1973). The serological classification is based on isolations from cases of human infection, and consequently the high proportion (31 %) of strains isolated in the survey which were not typable was to be expected (Table 5).…”

High prevalence of thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH)-like toxin inVibrio mimicusstrains isolated from diarrhoeal patients

“…However, strains isolated from environmental sources examined in this study, did not produce the toxin nor possess the toxin gene. As the TDH in V. parahaemolyticus is closely related to its enteropathogenicity [13,14], TDH-like toxin is estimated to be the enteropathogenicity factor in V. mimicus. Recently, Nishibuchi and colleagues [15] demonstrated that the TDH had enterotoxigenic activity and might be implicated in the watery diarrhoea by V. parahaemolyticus.…”

A survey on the occurrence ofVibrio parahaemolyticuson fish and shellfish, marketed in The Netherlands

“…The cardinal taxonomic properties of V. parahaemolyticus are the following: catalase +, oxidase +, glucose attacked by a fermentative pathway, sucrose-, H2S from cysteine and thiosulphate -, indole +, nitrate +, urea-, gelatin+, arabinose +, growthin the presence of 10 % Na -Cl (Sakazaki et al 1968). In addition Baross & Liston (1968) observed that V. parahaemolyticus utilizes starch under anaerobic conditions in the presence of 5 % NaCl.…”

“…Epidemiological investigations carried out in Japan have demonstrated that the halotrophic Vibrio species V. parahaemolyticus can cause outbreaks of infectious enteritis when absorbed with food in great numbers (Sakazaki, Iwanami & Fukumi, 1963;Zen Yoji et al 1965;Sakazaki et al 1968). Such vibrios have their main habitat in estuarine waters, fish and shellfish.…”